This week, Wall Street welcomed a slew of new ETFs, including six new leveraged ProShares funds and a new Deutsche Japan ETF.
Hull Tactical Asset Allocation also made its ETF debut, launching a new “tactical” ETF.
Hull Tactical Asset Allocation Enters ETF Industry
Working in partnership with Exchange Traded Concepts, Hull Tactical Asset Allocation launched its first offering: the Hull Tactical US ETF (HTUS ), which began trading on June 24.
HTUS – designed by industry veteran Blair Hull – is an actively managed fund that aims to deliver hedge fund-type management and utilizes the firm’s proprietary, patent-pending, quantitative trading model. HTUS is a “fund of funds” and will take either long or short positions in ETFs, and leverage ETFs or other securities that seek to track the performance of the S&P 500 based on the model; the remaining assets in the portfolio are held in cash.
Commenting on the launch, Blair Hull noted “Investing in the S&P 500 can be an uncertain game, but a disciplined and systematic approach can help you to outperform on a risk-adjusted basis. Our aim is to help investors avoid another 2008 in their portfolios, with a strategy not available in ETF form until now. We want to provide investors access to hedge fund-like investing. Investors need a strategy to gain lower volatility exposure to the equity market, especially in today’s volatile environment, and we believe HTUS delivers just that.”
Deutsche Adds Japan ETF
On June 24, Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management launched its JPX-Nikkei 400 Equity ETF (JPN ). The fund is the first to track the JPX-Nikkei 400 Index, which is one of Japan’s newest standard benchmark indexes for Japanese equities.
The index employs a rigorous screening process based on return on equity, cumulative operating profit and market capitalization to select high-quality, capital-efficient Japanese companies.
Commenting on the launch, Head of ETF Strategy Dodd Kittsley noted “We are seeing key institutions, including the Bank of Japan, adopt the JPX-Nikkei 400 Index as a benchmark for increasing allocations to the Japanese equity markets, and we anticipate our investors will follow suit and seek access to this exciting and new benchmark. We believe this is a unique opportunity for investors to participate in the Japanese market through this innovative new benchmark index.”
ProShares Expands Leveraged and Inverse Lineup
ProShares launched six new ETFs on June 22, offering inverse and leveraged exposure to several key corners of the market.
- UltraPro NASDAQ Biotechnology (UBIO ) offers 3x exposure to the NASDAQ Biotechnology Index.
- UltraPro Short NASDAQ Biotechnology (ZBIO ) offers -3x exposure to the NASDAQ Biotechnology Index.
- Ultra Homebuilders & Supplies (HBU ) offers 2x exposure to the Dow Jones U.S. Select Home Construction Index.
- UltraShort Homebuilders & Supplies (HBZ ) offers -2x exposure to the Dow Jones U.S. Select Home Construction Index.
- Ultra Oil & Gas Exploration & Production (UOP ) offers 2x exposure to the S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production Select Industry Index.
- UltraShort Oil & Gas Exploration & Production (SOP ) offers -2x exposure to the S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production Select Industry Index.
Note that each of these funds provide a multiple of the daily performance of an index and charge an expense ratio of 0.95%.
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Disclosure: No positions at time of writing.
